There are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play volleyball at least once a week. Although developed in 1895, volleyball in recent years has experienced tremendous growth in popularity, both as a spectator and as a participant sport. Numerous practice devices have been proposed and implemented for developing and polishing skills such as spiking, serving, blocking, jumping, and the like. In the sport of volleyball spike plays, accurate hitting of the volley ball, and correct jumping and positioning are perhaps the most important and difficult skills to learn and perfect. It is difficult to coach and teach the skills required in volleyball since the plays involve quick striking and spiking of the volleyball often completed in a jumping position off of the floor. To be effective, the coach must be extremely vigilant and observant of the player's setting and service, and of course, where the struck ball goes and the speed at which it travels. Of great importance are an effective, service, the quality of hit, and hand and wrist orientation at ball impact. All of these observations are difficult, if not impossible to make on a consistent basis, and often required hours of practice on the court or within a separate device which is out of the financial reach of most players.
Prior to the present invention there was no integrated practice apparatus available which could effectively replicate the service of a volleyball with the feel of a real ball. Various volleyball practice apparatuses have been proposed and implemented. For example, training apparatuses have been developed to support a game ball at a selected elevation for practice purposes. A typical volleyball training apparatus includes an upright post extending from a weighted base. A lateral arm extends outward from the post to a ball support. Such apparatuses are usually bulky and not convenient for home or travel use, nor are they capable of providing feedback to the user to indicate when a correct or an incorrect hit has been made in a remote environment without bulky equipment. Other apparatus include a net covering the volleyball further attached by a band around the waist. Such an apparatus provides for an artificial service experience and an unnatural feel of the ball upon service.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide an improved volleyball set and service training apparatus designed so that it can be used in any location and under any circumstances with little to no effort in retrieving the volleyball, all while maintaining the feel of a real service.
The present invention may be made from the following materials; seven and a half (7.5) inch polyurethane ball; scn-551s and scn-400s cone urethane plugs two (2) per ball; five and a half (5.5) feet of one eight (⅛) cord; one (1) ten (10) inch velcro wrist strap, and a hog ring connecting the cord to the wrist strap. In this embodiment, the cord runs from one side of the ball to the second side of the ball with a length of the cord traversing the interior of the ball. The first plug is placed in the first end of the ball where the first end of the cord is secured to the first plug. The first end of the cord runs from the first plug through the interior, of the ball to the second plug. The second plug is placed in the second end of the ball, directly across from the first plug, where a portion of the cord is secured to the second plug and the remainder of the cord remains outside the ball. The second end of the cord is connected to the strapping means with a hog ring or other connection device. The length of cord running between the first and second ends of the ball is comparable to the length of the diameter of the ball. The remainder of the cord remains outside the exterior surface of the ball. These materials may be changed or substituted to include like materials, or customized in length, width and size to accommodate an individual user's physical stature such as height and weight, as applicable.
The strapping means may consist of a rubber bracelet, buckles, ties, Velcro of other like materials capable for forming a secure wrist band around the user. The tethering means may consist of a rubber cord, elastic cord, plastic, cord, rope, or other like materials capable of retraction after the user sets and serves the volleyball. The tethering means may have a length, a width, and that varies from a minimum about equal to about the width to a maximum about equal to the distance from the service point to the center line, or such other length sufficient to simulate an effective volleyball service. The tethering means strip may have a plurality of markings indicating a variety, of possible distances for volleyball service, and may serve as visual aids to the volleyball player during a serve. The wrist band strap may house a mechanism for retracting the cord automatically, and coiling the cord around the wrist band strap such that the rope returns to its initial position prior to service. The mechanism for retracting the cord would employ a spring force capable of retracting the cord upon the user manually releasing the mechanism from the wrist band strap.
It is a further an objective of the invention to provide a volleyball training and monitoring apparatus with means to indicate the distance, speed, and force of the ball as served by the individual user through a computational means and output device worn on the user's wrist. The preceding invention variant may be established by using a simple LED display or other like visual display device on the users' wrist, with the distance, speed and force of the ball being computed by a central processing unit (CPU) within the ball itself, all connected through a wire capable of transmitting data from the CPU within the ball through the tethering means to the LED display on the user's, wrist band. Alternatively, the CPU may be contained within the wrist band itself for the purposes of determining distance and/or speed though said wire for display on user's wrist band.